Math classes for a physics major

Hi, I'm a high school senior that's just been admitted to Caltech. They sent me their course catalog in the mail, and I've been looking over it this week. I want to major in physics, and someday study elementary particles, gravitation, and string theory. What math should I take?

Caltech requires five terms of math: Ma 1abc (Calculus of One and Several Variables and Linear Algebra), and Ma 2ab (Ordinary Differential Equations, Probability, and Statistics). Which other courses should I take? The physics department recommends Ma 5 and Ma 108, as well as ACM 95 and ACM 101. Which of these would have the most applications to physics and what I want to study?

These are the classes that interested me the most. I know that geometry and topology are important to physics, but I’m not sure which of these would be most useful – I barely started learning differential geometry this winter break for general relativity.

Staff: Mentor

By the time you arrive at Caltech (probably even before then), they will probably assign you a faculty member as academic advisor. Someone "on the scene" is best suited to tell you which math courses are useful for their physics courses, or for the research fields that they're in.

You don't have to plan your whole four years before you even get there!